Bookshelf Tweaking

Today was a lovely, lazy Sunday. A perfect day for a mini-project. Nothing too involved or time-consuming, but something little and fun.

We have a great bookshelf in the living room that we just love. Bought it unfinished and stained it ourselves last summer. The cats love it too, and are always trying (and often succeeding) to pull the books off the shelves. This morning was no exception. Books lay sprawled out in front of the bookshelf; as I put them back (again) inspiration struck.

I love books and bookshelves, and I'm always drawn to them in magazines and blogs. One approach I've seen often and just love is organizing books by color, so I figured I'd give it a try. Our first attempt had been to arrange them by genre, but that didn't last long. So, I got to work with a different approach.

Here's how it looked when I started:



About a half hour or so later, here's how it turned out:



Not too shabby, I think. Want to see a couple close-ups?





Just ignore those Twilight books there at the bottom... nothing to see here, folks!

So, what do you think? Improvement or no? How (if at all) do you arrange your books?

V

Bookshelf Tweaking

Today was a lovely, lazy Sunday. A perfect day for a mini-project. Nothing too involved or time consuming, but something little and fun.

We have a great bookshelf in the living room that we just love. Bought it unfinished and stained it ourselves last summer. The cats love it too, and are always trying (and often succeeding) to pull the books off the shelves. This morning was no exception. Books lay sprawled out in front of the bookshelf; as I put them back (again) inspiration struck.

I love books and bookshelves, and I'm always drawn to them in magazines and blogs. One approach I've seen often and just love is organizing books by color, so I figured I'd give it a try. Our first attempt had been to arrange them by genre, but that didn't last long. So, I got to work with a different approach. 

Here's how it looked when I started:

About a half hour or so later, here's how it turned out:

Not too shabby, I think. Want to see a couple close-ups?

 

Just ignore those Twilight books there at the bottom... nothing to see here, folks!

So, what do you think? Improvement or no? How (if at all) do you arrange your books?

V

Diving In

If you're reading this, you probably know me. And if you know me, you know that I have strong opinions, don't hold my tongue, and am passionate about a number of things. You also probably know that family is everything, and mine is big, all sorts of crazy, and I love them dearly. I love corny jokes (thanks, Dad!), and crafty things (here's to you, Mom!). I live with the love of my life  and our two cats. I'm sure I sometimes drive her crazy with all of my little projects and crafts, but she supports me no matter what.

So, what's the point of staring this blog, anyway? And what's it going to be about?

Well, I've been thinking about starting a blog for a while now, but couldn't decide on what it should be about. I figured the best way to find out would be to dive in and see where it takes me. So...

It won't be a blog about decorating, or crafting, or fashion, or cooking, or organization. But I'll talk about all those things, because I love them.

It's not going to be all about politics - but on occasion I'll talk politics. Because, after all, the political is the personal and the personal is political.

I'll most likely write about social issues, things that bother me or that I wish I could change. I'll probably highlight things that inspire me, or showcase the good in the world.

This won't be a blog about gay rights issues, but I'll touch on them to be sure - I'm gay and these issues affect my life daily.

I'm not going to post about our cats everyday, but expect to see them make an appearance when they do something insanely adorable or infuriating.

I might talk about a book I've read, or a movie I've seen, or a recipe I've tried.

We'll see where it takes me, and I hope you'll come along for the ride.

V

Diving In

If you're reading this, you probably know me. And if you know me, you know that I have strong opinions, don't hold my tongue, and am passionate about a number of things. You also probably know that family is everything, and mine is big, all sorts of crazy, and I love them dearly. I love corny jokes (thanks, Dad!), and crafty things (here's to you, Mom!). I live with the love of my life  and our two cats. I'm sure I sometimes drive her crazy with all of my little projects and crafts, but she supports me no matter what.

So, what's the point of staring this blog, anyway? And what's it going to be about?

Well, I've been thinking about starting a blog for a while now, but couldn't decide on what it should be about. I figured the best way to find out would be to dive in and see where it takes me. So...

It won't be a blog about decorating, or crafting, or fashion, or cooking, or organization. But I'll talk about all those things, because I love them.

It's not going to be all about politics - but on occasion I'll talk politics. Because, after all, the political is the personal and the personal is political.

I'll most likely write about social issues, things that bother me or that I wish I could change. I'll probably highlight things that inspire me, or showcase the good in the world.

This won't be a blog about gay rights issues, but I'll touch on them to be sure - I'm gay and these issues affect my life daily.

I'm not going to post about our cats everyday, but expect to see them make an appearance when they do something insanely adorable or infuriating.

I might talk about a book I've read, or a movie I've seen, or a recipe I've tried.

We'll see where it takes me, and I hope you'll come along for the ride.

V

Little Leroy

 

Project: IKEA cabinet to breakfast nook

When my sister and her family moved, she gave us a couple of cabinets she'd bought from IKEA (many years ago) and had used in her kitchen for extra storage. They were plain wooden cabinets, one deeper than the other, and she had often stacked them like a hutch and used them for food storage, etc.

We had just moved in together, and were still trying to figure out how we were going to set up the apartment, what furniture we needed, etc. There's not a lot of cabinet space in our very tiny kitchen, so were thrilled when she offered them to us. However, our kitchen and dining room are connected, and the way it's configured, we couldn't stack them as she had done. Plus, we really wanted a free-standing island/breakfast nook.

So we got creative.

After a good deal of talking and planning, we took a trip to HomeDepot and picked up a piece of plywood, ceramic tiles (and grout, etc), paint and door handles. Then we swung over to IKEA and picked up some more legs to match those that were already on the piece my sister had used for the base cabinet. Then we got to work. We cleared out the dining room, laid down a drop cloth, broke out the sandpaper, power drill, paintbrushes and got to work. We then made another trip to HomeDepot to get the rest of the supplies we'd forgotten.

I think it was about half-way through the project that we looked at each other and thought "oh crap, what did we get ourselves into with this project?" Did I mention that we had just moved in together!?!?

 

After a weekend of hard work and frustration on both our parts (and me being dubbed "project take-over queen") we finally finished our kitchen island/breakfast nook. And despite our struggles, or perhaps because of them, we finished our project feeling closer than ever, with a shared sense of accomplishment.

We now have two functional storage units, a breakfast nook and a sidebar!

At-Home Salad Bar Solution

In an attempt to be a little healthier and eat more balanced dinners, B and I started making a point to have salads with our dinners each night. However, washing the lettuce or spinach, peeling and chopping carrots and cucumbers and all of the other salad fixings can be tedious and time consuming, especially when preparing a main dish as well.

We were talking one night about how convenient cafeteria and grocery store salad bars are, so we brainstormed ways to bring the convenience of a salad bar into our own kitchen. The solution we came up with is very simple and has been working extremely well, and cuts down on dinner prep time and dishes significantly - and has made packing lunches a cinch!

We found everything we needed at Target, and spent less than $20 on the whole set up! Unfortunately, I couldn't find the items on the Target website to link to.

Here's what we used to create our own at-home salad bar:

Two small plastic containers with locking lids

Plastic interlocking drawer organizers - these were helpful so that we could customize the layout of each container.

 

Spring has arrived in The Fenway!

Scenes of spring are in full bloom at and around work. Although the trees and flowers have been wreaking havoc with my allergies, they are so beautiful I can't help but to admire and photograph them.